Shooting Down Chinese High Altitude Balloons

The Pentagon says it is hard to do

#BREAKING: F-16s and an F-22 took off from Columbia air base in South Carolina, heading east towards the Chinese surveillance balloon. The F-22 shot it down and it fell into the sea. It was flying around 65,000 feet. It looks like the Biden administration has been shamed into taking action after the Chinese balloon completed its mission over the US. The administration claims it is trying to recover the remnants. Meanwhile Biden is saying he ordered it shot down last Wednesday!!!! —2/4/23 at 3:36 (1536)

Trying to explain inaction against numerous intrusions by Chinese high altitude balloons over sensitive US airspace, the Pentagon is now saying shooting them down is hard, maybe impossible.

So they didn’t try.

This is the latest propaganda from the weak Biden administration that openly tolerates intrusions into American airspace, especially intrusions over sensitive strategic missile sites and vital NORAD command posts.

According to reports about the balloon, now over Kansas, is that it is currently at an altitude of around 60,000 feet. This puts it at an altitude and in gun range of F-15 and F-22 aircraft. If we couldn’t down the balloon so easily, we could blast the balloons electronics and solar panels, so it would be nothing much more than an empty bladder at best.

But the administration has no intention of explaining anything beyond a pile of misleading nonsense that the balloon poses no threat and anyway we have taken “precautions” to cover up anything sensitive.

This, too, is misleading. Did we shut down sensitive radars that the Chinese sensors could track? Not really. Did we cover up the location of missile silos? Not really. Do we even know what the sensors and equipment are on the balloon? Not really.

In other words the Pentagon team sat on its hands and went and had lunch. In short, nothing was done, because if it was we would have been told what was done.

What China has learned is that US airspace is wide open for intrusion. China has also learned that US air defenses, especially missile defenses, can easily be fooled by slow flying weapons. Will the next lot of balloons headed over US territory be loaded with nuclear weapons?

Congress is making noise about China’s balloon gambit, but that’s all. It is likely there won’t be any hearings or any real investigation, nor will there be any legislation.

While the US tries to show its leadership by depleting our strategic arsenals fueling the war in Ukraine, we are falling back in the Pacific and are not investing in American defenses. Buying more bullets for Ukraine is not investing.

Sadly, we can expect more of the same in future as our country becomes more and more vulnerable to threats and attacks. This is how you get into real wars, and the Biden administration is doing everything it can to hasten the day.

Meanwhile the Pentagon is crying it can’t hit a Chinese balloon.